Title pretty much covers it. Have you ever stopped playing a game, or at least stopped completing “story” missions, because you enjoyed it so much you didn’t want it to end?
I’ve been in this state with GTA V for years now. I played it obsessively when I first got it, and as it became apparent I was getting close to the final missions I gradually started just screwing around more and more, and I’ve long been at the point where I only play the game just to fuck around. Now, in this particular case I could finish the game then just move on to GTA Online, which is really just an extension and expansion of GTA V, but I’m just not into the online gaming thing (I’ve only ever had unpleasant experiences with online gaming; people are dicks, and anonymous people are especially horrendous dicks).
There’s four main bosses. To access each of them, you find and defeat 5-7 minor bosses. After you take out two of the four big bosses, you can run the mission for the Real Boss and finish the story. Instead, I’ve been dinking around with all the minor bosses and all four main bosses before hitting the final story-ending mission.
I could play Breath of the Wild forever. Having said that, I did beat it once to see the ending and fortunately, it re-loads back before you beat the final boss and you can continue.
I’ve never quit to avoid ending one, but I definitely have lingered.
I’ve already actually gotten the “meh” ending of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I’ve been waiting to kill Ganon again, even though I’ve done the quests that would improve my ending. My oldest niece is at about the same place I am, but without the early final boss kill.
My usual problem is I end up messing around with all the sidequests because I want to get them done before beating the game, and then I end up getting bored before I finish. I’ve still never finished Fallout: New Vegas
I’ve beaten all of the Fallout games(except 4, no computer to run it on). I’ve beaten both Oblivion and Skyrim, but never Morrowind or Daggerfall. Daggerfall was so vast, I never got around to the story. Morrowind…I just kept wandering and lost track of it.
Almost 20 years I’ve been playing the Baldur’s Gate games, more heavily modded every year. And I still love the hell out of them. I’ve never finished Throne of Bhaal, for precisely the reason in the OP.
I came late to Oblivion, I’ve only been playing it for three years or so. I doubt I’ll ever get around to finishing it. I completed the main quest of Morrowind once. I usually just wander the world and have fun.
Ditto. I usually lose interest around converting Balthezar or earlier. I did Ctrl-Y everything just to see what the endings were, but ToB combat isn’t that interesting to me.
I found wandering the wastelands in both FO:3 and NV much more interesting than actually completing either of their endgames. Still haven’t picked up 4, and I’m not sure that I ever will. Pity Obsidian will never get another crack at that universe.
That’s how I feel right now with Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain… I’ve never liked these games and it was hard for me to get into, but I like it, and don’t want it to end so I am milking resources and such to delay the inevitable.
I also felt this way with Fallout 3/NV/4 and Oblivion and Skyrim… I even got every single achievement on them and I kinda want to reset the achievements so I can play it again casually, then hunt those down as extras on another playthrough. Fallout and Elder Scrolls games set the bar really high for what I find acceptable in games, so now I look at others in disdain like “Still not as good as fallout”.
I got that about the Xbox Star Wars/Knights of the Old Republic games.
At one point in of those games, you reach a point where you can’t do any missions other than the plot. Even if you have some side quests to do, you lose the open world aspect.
My wife has dicked around on BOTW for months, avoiding the final battle for ages because she doesn’t want it to end.
Neither me, my daughter or son thought to mention to her that it doesn’t actually end with the Ganon boss fight. No matter, she’s happy killing stuff.
I loved Portal but it was very short. I played Portal 2 in small chunks because I wanted to savour it in case it too was over too quickly.
My usual arc for a Bethesda open world game is to dork around and get distracted until, a couple weeks later, I’m getting bored and then plow through the half-remembered plot to say I’m done. Although I was kinder to New Vegas than that.
But for those who are unwilling to finish the Bethesda games or other older RPG titles, can’t you just save the game, knock out the final missions to see the end then reload from the save state?
Well, for me… I know it’s silly, but there is always some part of the game awaiting that I’ve never done before. I can replay the game over and over, and I know each time that there’s some new part out there I’ve not seen. If I complete the game, then I’ve seen it all, and the excitement might fade. This isn’t terribly logical, but it’s how I roll.
I forgot, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game I really goofed around a lot before beating. I had so much fun doing all the achievements and then killing all the orc captains over and over. I did give in and finish it eventually, and while the end was fine it was still a letdown because I was pretty much done.
I used to play Lords of the Realm all the way until the final enemy had one county remaining, and then I’d ignore him and play the game like an empire simulator. I had a savegame that lasted all the way into the 1600’s (game starts in 1268 AD) until I upgraded to Windows 98 and the game no longer worked.
Most Bethesda games don’t even end when you finish the main plot; you can keep playing. Although I rarely defeat the Big Bad in Morrowind because the Ghostfence looks so damn cool (and it goes away when Dagoth Ur dies.)
In Oblivion, I have a tendency to bond with the guys in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, so I hardly ever complete that questline beyond the Purification Quest.
